Digital Services
Have news alerts sent to your mobile device or email, read the e-Edition, sign up for daily newsletters, activate your all access, enter contests, take quizzes, download our mobile apps and see the latest e-circulars.

Contact Us
See department contacts, frequently asked questions, request customer service support, submit a photo or place an ad.

Hazleton Area blasts state on testing investigation

Article Tools

The clash between officials of the Hazleton Area School District and state Department of Education escalated Thursday when district officials fired a barrage of accusations at the state education agency in a written response to the department's statements earlier this week regarding its investigation into "statistically atypical" student scores on academic assessment tests.

The fray began Nov. 13 when school board President Brian Earley said he received two seemingly contradictory letters from the state education agency.

In one letter, Earley said a PDE official informed the district that its investigation of PSSA testing irregularities within the school district has concluded. The second letter said the probe continues.

In a follow-up interview this week, Tim Eller, press secretary with the department of education, confirmed that the initial investigation into an unusually high number of erasure marks on student test sheets that changed incorrect answers to correct, was completed and closed. By law, Eller said, he could neither confirm nor deny whether a second investigation was now underway in the district. But in general terms on a state-wide level, Eller said, it is not unusual for findings in an initial investigation to prompt a separate but parallel secondary investigation.

On Thursday, Earley issued a second written statement blasting the state education department for making contradictory statements, failing to follow protocol, playing political games and conducting secret investigations.

"The school district's attorneys have advised the school district that, based on all the available information, including reports from school district employees, PDE was apparently investigating much more than 'atypical' erasures on school district standardized tests," Earley said in Thursday's statement. "However, the school district was never notified of any other allegations and, in September 2012, objected to PDE seemingly conducting multiple investigations without any of the legally required notices. PDE's investigators responded by stating that no notice was required because no allegations had been made."

District Superintendent Francis X. Antonelli joined Earley in chiding PDE for what he termed "absolute nonsense."

"I have difficulty keeping track of PDE's spider-web of explanations about how it is supposedly following the proper processes," Antonelli said. "The 18-month investigation, which was so obviously about more than just erasures, was closed with no wrongdoing found. Then, all of a sudden, there is a new investigation that PDE suggests could possibly be related to the first investigation."

"The truth is that we may never know PDE's real agenda because we were never properly notified of all of the things that PDE investigated during the first investigation, and we get no response when asking about the subject of the second investigation," Antonelli said. "This is absolute nonsense."

After learning of the district's statement Thursday, Eller said the characterization is "misleading."

"The department has engaged in several discussions with the district - most recent was last week," Eller said. "It is the department's position that there was no confusion during these conversations and the district understood what was being discussed."

"The district's characterization is misleading," Eller said.

Earley remained adamant that PDE has stepped outside the established protocol and is withholding pertinent information from district officials.

"The process is that you get notice of the allegations, an investigation is conducted, and a hearing is held if the investigation finds any evidence in support of the allegations," Earley said.

"In this instance, in my opinion, PDE seems to have been secretly conducting a sweeping investigation of unknown scope under the guise of looking at 'atypical' erasures, without telling anyone what it was really doing," Earley said. "Now, after PDE's public declarations that it has cleared the school district of wrongdoing, we have vague statements of something that may or may not be related to some unknown piece of the first investigation. I do not understand why PDE will not follow the process and give us clear notice. How do you respond when you don't know what you're responding to?"

The district intends to fully cooperate with PDE's investigation, Earley said, but has also directed its attorneys to assess whether the district has any legal recourse against PDE's actions, he said.

"At this point, I can only speculate that politics is at play," said Earley. "I cannot think of any other explanation for why PDE has acted this way."

mlight@standardspeaker.com

We welcome user discussion on our site, under the following guidelines:

To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.

Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.